Before I go to sleep

Chapter 6

 My tongue shrivels into nothing and my stomach is knotted tighter than ropes. The shock is evident in his eyes by the way they slightly get bigger. Darn, I can feel my traitorous cheeks turning red.

  "Hi," He's the first one to speak.

"Hey," is all I can manage to force out of my lips. "I...uh...your mom is calling you," I say fumbling throughout my words.

"Sorry you had to come all the way out here," He tells me.

 "It's no problem," I say with a wave of my hand. "I don't mind."

Michael looks at me; I can tell he recognizes me. "Michael Richmond. So, we meet again Annette," he says with a teasing tone extending his hand out to me.

I'm flustered. I can feel the swarm of butterflies dancing around my stomach. He remembers my name. Get a grip, Anne. Shakily I take his hand and again I feel a spark run through me.

  "Anne, I prefer to be called Anne," I say looking into his eyes.

His gaze is unsettling is as if he's looking inside me. Going into the depths I've always been afraid of going into. He's seeing me, the real me, the girl who's been and still is broken, who hides behind a false façade, fooling everyone into thinking she's okay.

   "Um, we should get going." I say.

They nod their head in unison.

  A soft voice snaps me out of my thoughts. "What's wrong with your face?" Callum asked me.

I glanced down at him, then away and bit my lip. "N...nothing." I muttered going all the redder.

 "Callum that's not nice," I heard Michael scolding him.

"But she looks like a tomato. A very pretty tomato. Hey are you sick?" I was both flattered and horrified by the compliment of resembling a tomato.

"No," I replied. He nodded and the most unexpected thing happened I felt a tiny warm hand slip into mine. I looked down and saw callum looking at me with the biggest smile on his face.

"Do you want to play with me, later?" he asked with puppy dog eyes.

I nodded my head. "I would love that," I said ruffling his hair.

  Callum then smiled at the two of us. He began to hum as he walked away. I turned my head and caught Michael looking at me. Then I saw his eyes snap away from me and over to my house. I followed his look and saw that he was watching his and my parents looking at us with the biggest smiles on their faces. We stop walking, look at each other, and laugh.

  "Seems like our parents are trying to play matchmaker," Michael says smiling at me. My breath hitches in my throat.

 "Yeah, oh gosh," I say as I see my mom and Laura pointing at us. They have the 'oh-young-love' expression on their face. "It seems that our mothers hit it off greatly." I say pointing my chin toward them.

He laughs loud when he sees them. Instantly the air leaves my lungs, his laugh is like music to my ears: cheesy, I know. He looks quite nice when he's chuckling, so much more approachable and handsome. I like how he shuts his eyes and presses his fist to his mouth as if he were trying to trap the chuckles inside. Yes, his laughter is the best sound I've ever heard. It washed over me slowly and warmly, reminding me of honey.

  "C'mon kids! Food is ready," I hear my mom yell.

  We go and he takes the seat next to his younger brother. I try to find another seat to sit at but every single one is occupied, the only one is next to Michael. The moment I sat down, the table buzzed with constant chatter. During the ten minutes of sitting there and eating I found out that William, whose Michael's dad is going to start working alongside my dad in the hospital. They live two houses down; have only two kids, and a dog.

  I wonder what type of dog they have; Garu could sure use a doggy friend. Crickets chirped and the sound of the water lapping against the side of the dock. My mind raced back three years to a time when Oz was still here- a time before I committed the ultimate stupid mistake. I could see it all as if it were yesterday.

  Oz Anderson was the best brother anyone could ask for. He was the type of kid who'd take a punch for you, lie for you, or share the last of twizzlers with you. He wasn't a bad kid at all; he had a heart made of gold. Images sprang into my head, flashes of things. I was kicking a soccer ball to oz. Then that image vanished and a new one appeared. Oz running, me chasing him, we were both laughing. He looked back and saw me a brown-haired girl hot on his trail, grabbing him and throwing him over my shoulder as he squealed in delight.

"Annette, snap out of it. That's our daughter for you. Always the daydreamer. "My parents gave me a soft smile.

 "Sorry, what did you say?" My cheeks and ears turned slightly pink.

"I said why don't you take Michael and Callum in the living room and watch some TV, play games."

"Alright," I stand and so do Michael and Callum.

We go into the living room and I rummaged through the games we have in our closet.Rummaging through the closet, I pull out Scrabble, Candy Land, Twister, Monopoly, and Sorry. I laid them out on the table and told Callum to go ahead and choose one.

Bouncing forward, his little hands instantly went for the game board Twister, "This one, this is the one. Let's play this game."

 "Okay, so do you want to get into position?" I say motioning to the now laid out mat on the floor.

Callum gives me a tiny smile before saying, "I'm going to be the referee. You and Bobo are going to go against each other."

"I...uh...okay." I say taking off my shoes.

Michael nudged me. "Don't worry. I'll take it easy on you," He said with a smirk.

"I'm not worry," I said crossing my arms over my chest, "besides I'm a pro at this game."

Michael looked at me. "Alright, if you're so sure you're going to win then let's make a bet,"

I raised my eyebrows, "what do you have in mind?" I asked biting the side of my thumb.

 "Loser has to answer three questions truthfully and has to take care of Callum," he said.

I looked over at Callum. He didn't seem as a troublesome kid. "Alright, deal." I said extending my hand out.

Michael reached his right hand out to meet mine and we shook on it. Once our hands untangled that I started thinking what on earth Michael could possibly want to ask me if he won. Would he ask why I act strange around him? Would he ask about what happened to oz? Would he ask me about my daydreaming problem? Maybe I had been stupid to agree to this. What if I ended up having to answer a very horrible question?

I couldn't let him have the chance.

I had to win. Period. I look over to him and saw him sizing me up.

 Let the game begin.

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Author's Note

Hey guys! Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter. I'm really not good at author's note but I really hope you vote, comment... I would really appreciate it. Oh, and I didn't proof read this chapter, so sorry if there's any mistakes. Also, I'm sorry this chapter isn't long enough I thought it was but it apparently wasn't. I'll try to make my chapters a bit more longer from now on.

 Oh, and if you're reading this story I would really like your feedback. You are an awesome person.

      ~Cygnet